Picard for me... I like the well regimented ruling of his style.

I can see the idea of man versus boy... or more to the point, the Yankee versus British style of leadership.

One thing that struck me as I watched these episodes from inception, was how well regimented and strict Kirk was given his later impulsiveness as the series progressed into year three. Very militaristic and service oriented.

additionally, I think a lot of the science and Trek Babel Speak holds up amazingly well in modern times despite it being half a century old now.

Kirk just seems like the captain who would lay it all on the line to bring his boys back home. I've often poked fun at Shatner's acting chops, but he really does get across that sense that his character cares about his crew more than anything.

Day of the Dove was easily the most swashbucklingest episode ever --lots of swordy action and karate chops and whatnot. As I mentioned previously, Roddenberry wanted more Chekov in season 3, and here we see him stepping way outside of his usual goofball role and into something much darker. Not much of a plot, but I did like the unsettling theme of the crew becoming unhinged, esp Scotty and Spock almost coming to blows. I vote it as OK/decent.

Misc:

Michael Ansara will reprise his role as Kang in both a DS9 episode and a Voyager episode. Has any other actor been featured in three or more ST franchises?

Majel Barrett - TOS, TNG, DS9
John de Lancie - TNG, DS9, Voyager

Mark Lenard - TOS, STNG, 4 Star Trek Movies (I, III, IV, VI)

Jeffrey Combs - DS9, VOY, ENT
Marina Sirtis - TNG, VOY, ENT
Jonathan Frakes - TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT

Armin Shimerman - TNG, DS9, VOY

Lot of Star Trek geeks ITT

Not to mention Stan the Caddy on Seinfeld,

I would not have guessed Jonathan Frankes would be the winner.

My old boss who is a big sci fi guy, described any actor that once they hit it big had Will Riker syndrome, meaning they got fat once they hit it big.

Although if you count voiceover work, Majel Barrett is the only person to hit the complete cycle of all six ST series. Plus all of the movies, I think.

Wow, I did not expect 'who has been in Star Trek the most' debate to beat out a 'Kirk vs Picard' debate.

'who has been in Star Trek the most' is more of a derail...

----------------------------------------------------------------------

who would win in a tactical battle exercise between Kirk with Spock or Picard with Data?

Data is insanely quick but seems to lack the ability for tactics and three dimensional thought that breaks out of standardized techniques.

I'd have to give that to the side with Spock.

Gotta go with Kirk/Spock if for no other reason than Kirk would cheat.

Data: "I busted him up."

For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky SEASON 3 EPISODE 08



Wiki Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_the...ouched_the_Sky

Great title - surely someone thought of the title, and then wrote the story.

I liked many elements of this - McCoy was played with great dignity and delicacy in this one, and some of the scenes were pretty good, and I liked the general idea (though the old chestnut of a puter as a society's god has been played out too many times over the 3 seasons), but it was also a little too neatly wrapped up for its own good.

Why on earth would McCoy leave his new, hot wife? Really?

Redshirt Count: 23

Classics -
Amok Time (S2E01)
The City on the Edge of Forever (S1E28)
Spectre of the Gun (S3E06)
The Naked Time (S1E04)
The Corbomite Maneuver (S1E10)
Balance of Terror (S1E14)
The Enemy Within (S1E05)
The Squire of Gothos (S1E17)o
Devil in the Dark (S1E25)
Mirror Mirror (S2E04)
Arena (S1E18)
Miri (S1E08)
A Taste of Armageddon (S1E23)
Charlie X (S1E02)
Space Seed (S1E22)
Patterns of Force (S2E21)

Very Good
The Ultimate Computer (S2E24)
This Side of Paradise (S1E24)
Is There in Truth No Beauty? (S3E05)
A Piece of the Action (S2E17)
The Trouble with Tribbles (S2E15)
By Any Other Name (S2E22)
Return to Tomorrow (S2E20)
Wolf In The Fold (S2E14)

Decent
Shore Leave (S1E15)
Bread and Circuses (S2E25)
Day of the Dove (S3E07)
Return of the Archons (S1E21)
Mudd's Women (S1E06)
I Mudd (S2E08)
The Omega Glory (S2E23)
Journey to Babel (S2E10)
Operation Annihilate (S1E29)
The Menagerie (S1E11+12)
Court Martial (S1E20)
The Conscience of the King (S1E13)
Where No Man Has Gone Before (S1E03)
The Man Trap (S1E01)
What Are Little Girls Made Of (S1E07)
Dagger of the Mind (S1E09)
And The Children Shall Lead (S3E04)
Galileo Seven (S1E16)
The Changeling (S2E03)
Catspaw (S2E07)
Errand of Mercy (S1E26)
Tomorrow Is Yesterday (S1E19)
The Apple (S2E05)
The Doomsday Machine (S2E06)
Assignment: Earth (S2E26)
For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky (S3E08)

Ho-Hum

The Gamesters of Triskelion (S2E16)
A Private Little War (S2E19)
The Paradise Syndrome (S3E03)
Obsession (S2E13)
The Deadly Years (S2E12)
Who Mourns for Adonais? (S2E02)
The Immunity Syndrome (S2E18)
Friday's Child (S2E11)
Metamorphosis (S2E09)
Spock's Brain (S3E01)
The Enterprise Incident (S3E02)

Terrible -
The Alternative Factor (S1E27)

I liked seeing McCoy get a little bit of action for a change. Usually, it's Kirk or Spock hooking up with the alien hotties. I also liked the theme of McCoy being tempted with the idea of abandoning the Enterprise to spend quality time with his lady friend --in fact, I kinda think the whole story would have been more compelling if he wasn't infected with that terminal space disease.

Misc:

The sets for this episode were surprisingly good considering how strapped for cash the show was at this point. Much of this may be due to props being recycled. The book of law, for example, is also the mobster encyclopedia from A Piece of the Action.

Xenopolycythemia, the space disease, is loosely based on polycythemia, an actual genetic blood disorder.

Classic romantic theme -- two lovers who can't be together because of their duty to larger causes and responsibilities. Ok, so it wasn't exactly Casablanca, but I still liked it.

Barrett was also the voice of the computer in every movie and series

The Tholian Web SEASON 3 EPISODE 09



Wiki Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tholian_Web

Well, we all know they were on restricted budgets on this third series, but wow are they making the best of it in this one, by recycling the interiors to be both the Enterprise and the Defiant.

This is maybe the most original episode we've seen in a while. The trapped premise along with the Captain being out there, but running out of time, give his more the feel of people caught in an ever-decreasing trap, and this one is about tension rather than action. The going through the dead people on the Defiant is unsettling.

Plus you get Checkov going bananas, and Uhura gets a little more screen time than usual.

Great episode. I think it's a classic.

Redshirt Count: 23 (I'm not counting all the redshirt bodies on the Defiant).

Classics -
Amok Time (S2E01)
The City on the Edge of Forever (S1E28)
Spectre of the Gun (S3E06)
The Naked Time (S1E04)
The Corbomite Maneuver (S1E10)
The Tholian Web (S3E09)
Balance of Terror (S1E14)
The Enemy Within (S1E05)
The Squire of Gothos (S1E17)o
Devil in the Dark (S1E25)
Mirror Mirror (S2E04)
Arena (S1E18)
Miri (S1E08)
A Taste of Armageddon (S1E23)
Charlie X (S1E02)
Space Seed (S1E22)
Patterns of Force (S2E21)

Very Good
The Ultimate Computer (S2E24)
This Side of Paradise (S1E24)
Is There in Truth No Beauty? (S3E05)
A Piece of the Action (S2E17)
The Trouble with Tribbles (S2E15)
By Any Other Name (S2E22)
Return to Tomorrow (S2E20)
Wolf In The Fold (S2E14)

Decent
Shore Leave (S1E15)
Bread and Circuses (S2E25)
Day of the Dove (S3E07)
Return of the Archons (S1E21)
Mudd's Women (S1E06)
I Mudd (S2E08)
The Omega Glory (S2E23)
Journey to Babel (S2E10)
Operation Annihilate (S1E29)
The Menagerie (S1E11+12)
Court Martial (S1E20)
The Conscience of the King (S1E13)
Where No Man Has Gone Before (S1E03)
The Man Trap (S1E01)
What Are Little Girls Made Of (S1E07)
Dagger of the Mind (S1E09)
And The Children Shall Lead (S3E04)
Galileo Seven (S1E16)
The Changeling (S2E03)
Catspaw (S2E07)
Errand of Mercy (S1E26)
Tomorrow Is Yesterday (S1E19)
The Apple (S2E05)
The Doomsday Machine (S2E06)
Assignment: Earth (S2E26)
For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky (S3E08)

Ho-Hum

The Gamesters of Triskelion (S2E16)
A Private Little War (S2E19)
The Paradise Syndrome (S3E03)
Obsession (S2E13)
The Deadly Years (S2E12)
Who Mourns for Adonais? (S2E02)
The Immunity Syndrome (S2E18)
Friday's Child (S2E11)
Metamorphosis (S2E09)
Spock's Brain (S3E01)
The Enterprise Incident (S3E02)

Terrible -
The Alternative Factor (S1E27)

The Tholian Web is also the jumping off point to the great Enterprise two parter In a Mirror, Darkly. Really fun episode.

I LOVE The Tholian Web. Maybe my favorite episode. Real creepy...it's almost a horror episode.

The setup reminds me a little bit of The Naked Time and The Doomsday Machine, in that the crew beams down to find everyone aboard has horrifically died. This is a premise that gets revisited at least once it ST and countless times in other sci-fi franchises. The space web thingy is a great bit of classic 60's psychedelic sci-fi.